Philosophical considerations on the design of smart grids
Philosophical considerations on the design of smart grids
复制标题
智能电网设计的哲学思考
DOI：
10.1109/pesgm.2012.6344925
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发表时间：
2012
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
M. Verkerk
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
P. Ribeiro;H. Polinder;M. Verkerk
全球化世界中发达国家、发展中国家和新兴国家的未来在很大程度上取决于能源的供应和运输。相信不久的将来能源消耗将持续增长。安全性和可持续性已成为客户和电力公司的主要优先事项。可持续/可再生能源的部署对于社会与环境的健康关系至关重要。电网是社会基础设施的重要组成部分，需要持续关注以保持其性能和可靠性。网格有时被称为人类有史以来最大的机器，它是一个广泛的、相互关联的系统，其强度取决于其最薄弱的环节。我们社会的电气化推动了其他领域的无数进步，美国国家工程院将其列为上世纪最伟大的工程成就 [2]。成功的智能电网部署需要系统性的视角，因为大多数智能电网的优势本质上都是系统性的。系统集成和客户的充分参与是这一发展的关键要素[3]。目前欧洲的项目投资额超过 50 亿欧元，预计到 2020 年将达到 560 亿欧元[4]。未来的电力基础设施将比现在复杂得多。它将必须整合传统和可持续能源、现有和新的分配系统、具有完全不同消费模式的客户以及智能控制系统。然而，目前还没有足够全面的工程模型和工具来应对未来电网更高程度的复杂性。因此，工程师使用传统模型来设计下一代电力基础设施，结果技术系统之间的重要交互将被忽视；非技术维度，如客户的社会行为或智能控制系统的道德维度将被忽略；经济弱势的利益相关者的正当利益将被忽视。至关重要的是，开发工程模型和工具能够正确处理电网的复杂性、技术社会的复杂性以及人、技术与自然之间的复杂关系。从根本上说，哲学作为一门学科最有能力洞察电气工程师必须处理的巨大复杂性。然而，哲学方法不能被视为理所当然。大多数人认为哲学充其量只是一个有趣的理性游戏，而不是一门可以解决任何问题的学科。汤姆·莫里斯（Tom Morris）在他的《傻瓜哲学》（Philosophy for Dummies）（1999）一书中以幽默的方式引用了伏尔泰的一句话，伏尔泰在自嘲中对哲学家所谓的“不那么实际”的插入表示：“如果听的人不明白说话者的意思，如果说话的人不明白他的意思，那就是哲学”（Morris，1999，p.14）。当然，这是一个玩笑。然而，对于许多人来说，这可以看出他们对哲学家的偏见。本文的作者认为，如果满足以下条件，哲学方法可能非常有用：（1）它提供了批评工程、经济和政治领域现有方法的工具和概念； （2）更深入地了解未来微电网、超级电网和智能电网的复杂性； （3）为如何开发更加高效、以人为本、环境友好、可持续的电力系统指明了方向。从几个欧洲智能电网项目中汲取的经验教训以及[3]中报告的经验教训包括： 数据收集过程中遇到的困难；缺乏进行分析的定量数据；认识到系统的较高复杂性和缺乏适当的集成；商业模式设定的困难；缺乏消费者参与；需要适当的信息通信技术基础设施；需要更好的数据保护和安全；以及需要立法框架来确保适当的责任分工。该报告强调，“对收集的项目的扫描似乎表明，人们对智能电网的社会影响缺乏特别关注。”本文的结构如下：首先，描述智能电网的特性（第 2 节）。然后讨论社会影响（第 3 节），然后讨论处理智能电网系统复杂性的哲学需求（第 4 节）。介绍了一些分析注意事项和工具，然后是案例研究和应用（第 5 节）。最后提出了一些关于制定总体框架的建议（第 6 节）。
The future of the developed, developing and emerging countries in a global world strongly depends on the availability and transport of energy. It is believed that the near future the consumption of energy will continuously grow. Security and sustainability have become major priorities to both customers and electric companies. Deployment of sustainable / renewable energy sources is crucial to a healthy relationship of society and the environment. The electric power grid is a crucial part of society infrastructure and needs constant attention for maintaining its performance and reliability. Sometimes called the largest machine man has ever made, the grid is a widespread, interconnected system that is as strong as its weakest link. The electrification of our society has empowered countless advances in other fields such that the US National Academy of Engineering ranked it as the greatest engineering achievement of the last century [2]. Successful smart grid deployment requires a systemic perspective, as most of the smart grid benefits are systemic in nature. System integration and full engagement of customer are crucial elements of this development [3]. Project investments in Europe currently amount to over 5 billion euros and estimated 56 billion by 2020 [4]. The electrical infrastructure of the future will be much more complex than the current one. It will have to integrate traditional and sustainable energy sources, present and new distribution systems, customers with quite different consumption patterns, and smart control systems. However, at this moment there are no comprehensively enough engineering models and tools that can cope with the higher level of complexity of future electric grids. Consequently, engineers use traditional models to design the next generation of electrical infrastructure with the result that important interactions between technical systems will be overlooked; non-technical dimensions like social behavior of customers or moral dimensions of smart control systems will be ignored; and the justified interests of economically weak stakeholders will be neglected. It is of utmost importance that engineering models and tools will be developed that do justice to the complexity of electrical grids, the complexity of our technological society, and the complex relation between man, technology and nature. Fundamentally, philosophy as a discipline would be most well-equipped to give insight in the vast complexity that electrical engineers have to deal with. However, a philosophical approach cannot be taken for granted. Most people believe that philosophy is at best an interesting game of reason but not a discipline that can solve any problem. Tom Morris cites in his book Philosophy for Dummies (1999) in a humorous way, a statement from Voltaire, who in self-mockery says on the alleged `not so practical' inset of philosophers as such: `if he who hears does not understand what he who speaks means, and if he who speaks himself does not understand what he means, that is philosophy' (Morris, 1999, p.14). It was, of course, meant as a joke; however for many this will be recognizable towards their own prejudices about philosophers. The authors of this paper believe that a philosophical approach may be extremely useful if: (1) It gives tools and concepts to criticize present approaches in engineering, economics and politics; (2) It gives more insight in the complexity of future micro, super and smart grids; (3) It shows a direction how to develop more efficient, human-oriented, environmental friendly, and sustainable electrical systems. Among the lessons learned from several smart grid European projects and reported on [3] were: the difficulties encountered during the data collection process; the lack of quantitative data to perform analysis; the recognition of the higher complexity of the system and the lack of proper integration; the difficulties with the setting of business models; the lack of consumer involvement; the need for proper ICT infrastructure; the need of better data protection and security; and the need for legislative framework to ensure proper division of responsibilities. The report highlights that “a scan of the collected projects seems to suggest a lack of specific attention t the social implications of Smart Grids.” This paper has the following set-up: first, a description of smart grids characteristics is presented (section 2). Then the societal implications are discussed (section 3), followed by the need of philosophy to deal of the complexity of the smart grid system (section 4). Some analysis considerations and tools are the introduced followed by case studies and applications (section 5). Finally some recommendations for the development of an overall framework is presented (section 6).